Today marks the beginning of the beginning of the end of summer. Yes, the NY State Fair begins on Thursday (which is “Governor’s Day.” On Friday, I hope to be able to post video of city-boy Gov. Snotball milking a bull), and when it ends on Labor Day, summer will be over and it’ll be football season. Actually, it’ll be football season before it’s over, as SU’s first game is on Saturday, Sept 1st. This is all very, very sad. Ordinarily, this is my favorite time of year, but if we have the kind of winter we had last year, then I’m really not looking forward to it. Oh well, time marches on.

It’s hard for me to believe we haven’t been out here for even a year yet. At this point last year, we were hoping for a quick closing so we could get in here before the weather turned to shit. So, naturally, the closing was delayed until the end of October. We had a couple of decent days, managed to get the first phase of fencing put up for the dogs, fortunately, but then things turned to shit. Literally. The Kubota was quickly pressed into service digging up the front lawn. And then the worst winter anybody around here can remember (and that’s saying a lot for us old-timers, who have seen a winter or two).

Then the thaw came (and the rain). Turns out, there’s a stream that runs directly under my house, and golly gee, my sump pumps got quite the workout. As did my septic system – more shit.

Ah, it all seems so long ago now.

I had big plans for the summer – lots of things to accomplish before the return of the cold weather. I have accomplished very little of it – partly due to the distraction of the pool, and partly because other things came up.

Hopefully we’ll get a nice, long fall. And SU won’t suck. Is that too much to ask?